Sunday, April 13, 2008

"Sirius Speedway" On Monday Afternoon

Thanks again to Dave and Suzy for letting me stop by the Sirius studios. What a nice group of people. Due to some driver availability issues, I was on a bit early but it was certainly fun.

Monday is a good day for talking TV, mainly because of the clash between Major League Baseball and NASCAR that happened on Saturday night. Viewers of both sports were short-changed, as the Fox gang did not choose to follow many of the practices that are normally done in live program overlap situations.

Spoken as a person who has been in that situation many times before, there is often no easy way out and things tend to happen rather quickly. In this case, good intentions led to both parties walking away with ruffled feathers.

Other topics on the agenda may include TV clearly driving the drug testing agenda while many print reporters steer clear. In addition, viewers are asking why Ray Evernham does not seem to be showing-up on ESPN recently?

The email continues about Fox choosing once again to show only the leader finish, and refusing to comment on that issue. If Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not deserve to have their final run to the flag shown on live TV, than what the heck do drivers have to do? Winning is only one story of the race, and often it is not the best one.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post, I will update the times as soon as possible on Monday. For those without Sirius, I will post an update on the topics and the comments as well. Thanks again for stopping by, if you want to suggest a topic for Monday, please feel free.

21 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I would like to add what DD on WindTunnel said about the NASCAR/ Baseball/FOX SPORTS issue. He said that this is the first time NASCAR has been put above one of the biggest rivalries in baseball. He said That is a good thing.

In addition, viewers are asking why Ray Evernham does not seem to be showing-up on ESPN recently?

Aw, no you guys - Don't ask! I noticed he was gone too but I was thinking that was a good thing.

Maybe Ray will stay gone if nobody asks about him.

Ray was originally supposed to be the booth analyst for the Mexico City Nationwide race (and the Loudon race) instead of Andy or DJ; I don't know which one he was going to replace. Since Ray hasn't been around, I was hoping Randy Lajoie would help call that race instead of Ray.

JD, maybe I'm missing something. In your reply above you said, "Cannot re-publish Sirius, and NASCAR online content is the property of Turner Interactive. That company pays NASCAR to run NASCAR.com. This is the reason that Sirius Channel 128 is not available for streaming on your PC or laptop.".

If Mark Martin and Dale Jr. weren't good enough for Fox to show crossing the finish line, how do those guys feel that finished 30th and back feel - they were treated like they were never even at the track. I agree Randy LaJoie would do a good job in Mexico City too.

Vince, anything online has to be negotiated with Turner, they own all the rights to everything NASCAR online. Sirius has been trying to put the NASCAR channel online like they do the NFL channel but Turner wants too many $$$$.

In reference to the post race show...At least 99% of the country was able to view it, but if you live in S Fla it's evident that the FOX affiliate down here (WSVN 7)has other priorities, like jumping straight to their news cast. What a joke !

Just like the other poster said, online NASCAR content is controlled by Turner Interactive from a contract that was done a while back.

If NASCAR had to do it over again, I believe they would not have used the Internet as a single source of revenue for them instead of letting NASCAR Images and Sirius and others get online and spread the word about the sport.

The Turner contract has years to go, so there will always be a void online where diversified official NASCAR content is concerned.

I would be interested in hearing any commentray on how SPEED TVs "Victory Lane" show was mostly spent discussing those who DID NOT make it to Victory Lane at all. No disrespect to Mark Martin but when did the Victory Lane show turn into a sob session for Mark Martin not taking the checkers?

"In addition, viewers are asking why Ray Evernham does not seem to be showing-up on ESPN recently? "

For me that is a good thing. When I see Evernham I either change the channel or put the set on mute. I really enjoy the Busch Mexico race and if he is involved with calling it that will be a real shame.

Perhaps if the question of "Where's Ray?" has been asked by some viewers, Evernham and the network can handle it gracefully by saying that he's determined that he wants to spend more time consulting with Dodge and the GEM teams. That would be logical since neither Dodge or GEM is doing all that great right now. That way neither ESPN or Evernham looks bad...and I don't have to see him on TV. The perfect solution.

Daly Planet Editor said... Thanks for all the nice emails, the Sirius crew is a great bunch and we got to talk Fox for a while.

We are going to work on getting more TV issues on the air, and should have some more information about that down the road.

JD

April 14, 2008 4:18 PM

Glad you all had a good day. I think we would like to know what all went on Saturday night w/FOX. Maybe a future subject. As to what went in to the decision and what we all have seen on the night in question.LouKingston,NY

I can't believe I'm actually defending Ray Evernham, but I generally find him to be interesting and knowledgeable on-air and thought he was good on NN, especially interacting with Rusty Wallace. Unfortunately that is overshadowed for many (me included) by his personal issues. I'd be interested too in knowing if he's gone from ESPN and what both sides have to say about it. I'm sorry I don't get Sirius.